McKenna on KIRO: Seattle suing over sanctuary city status

KIRO 97.3 host Dave Ross asked Rob about the City of Seattle’s lawsuit against the federal government over a federal crackdown against “sanctuary cities.” The city is seeking a declaratory order because Seattle has not yet suffered any funding consequences from the federal government.

Dave Ross: “Well what is federal law? There is some confusion over what federal law actually requires the city to do. So what does federal law say on this matter?”

Rob McKenna: “Well federal law does not require cities and states to enforce federal immigration statutes, the federal immigration system. But, it does say that a local government, a state government, or a federal government agency may not prohibit an officer or an agency from sending information to the immigration and naturalization service about the immigration status of a particular individual.

“So in other words, if a law enforcement officer has information that someone is here illegally, they cannot be prohibited from communicating that information to INS. But that’s different than the policies of many sanctuary cities like Seattle’s, which say, ‘don’t ask.’ It’s sort of a don’t-ask-don’t-tell system.”